The measure shows investors how many times per period the company pays its average payable amount. For example, if the company makes $100 million in purchases from suppliers in a year and at any given point holds an average accounts payable of $20 million, the accounts payable turnover ratio for the period is 5 ($100 million/$20 million). If the turnover ratio is falling from one period to another, this is a sign that the company is taking longer to pay off its suppliers than it was before. The opposite is true when the turnover ratio is increasing, which means that the company is paying of suppliers at a faster rate.